


The promise

by PrincessOfMalec (Treasure7)



Series: Forever I'm yours, forever I do [2]
Category: Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types, Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Fix-It of Sorts, Fixing the breakup, Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Insecure Magnus Bane, Kidnapping, M/M, Magnus is too pure for this world, Protective Alec Lightwood, Protective Raphael, Rescue Missions, Simon just really needs to be hugged
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-02
Updated: 2017-06-11
Packaged: 2018-08-12 15:16:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7939423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Treasure7/pseuds/PrincessOfMalec
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>"If you make a promise to yourself, you have to keep it" </i>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>They had other issues, Alec knew that, but at the moment all he could focus on was getting Magnus away from that poisonous snake of a woman.</p><p>He had the perfect plan, stay close to the warlock and make sure Camille had no more opportunity to play one of her ugly tricks; no one would get killed and they would all be happy...<br/>But when the vampire bitch had to go and kidnap both Magnus and Simon, Alec had just about enough.</p><p>And let's just say, he's not the only one who gets rightly pissed off when someone hurts the people he love.</p><p>Or</p><p>The fic where I needed some Alec and Raphael being protective over their boys!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was actually supposed to be posted months ago, but I sort of lost my muse for it and just got her back!
> 
> I hope you like it though, please let me know in the comments!
> 
> If you're here for Saphael, then don't worry! This fic will be sort of a Malec and Saphael-fic in one, because I love both of these couples so much!

Alec was pissed off.

 

Pissed off and tired, actually. His head was pounding by the time he left the Institute to come with Izzy to Magnus’ place. The thought of seeing the warlock had him in brighter spirits and he felt his lips twitch in a secret smile on the way there. 

 

Honestly, all he wanted to do was go to that Ethiopian place Magnus had mentioned just before they’d found Lydia. He wanted to go there and just spend an entire evening listening to Magnus tell him stories about his life. Alec wasn’t stupid, he knew he’d been gone on Magnus the second they’d locked eyes with each other, even though he’d desperately tried to deny that fact when the other man had pushed the subject. Magnus just had this... Strangely comforting effect on him, even when Alec was trying to be angry with him, and that was what Alec really wanted right now.

 

Which is why, when he stepped into the warlock’s apartment in time to see Camille twist Magnus around and seal their lips together, Alec saw red.

 

He’d spent the entire evening dealing with his mother trying to break them up before they had even gotten together. He’d listen to her spew her racist shit about Magnus and the fact that he was “a _Downworlder_ ” for what felt like hours (it was probably no longer than a couple of minutes, but Alec’s patience wasn’t exactly holding up very well and it felt like he’d spent hours trying to not knock her out for talking about Magnus as if he somehow was beneath her, when the man had done nothing but try and help them this entire time). He’d walked through the Institute and dealt with the disgusted looks and the gossiping from people he’d once called friends. He’d had a long night and he was sick and tired of nobody being capable of just letting him and Magnus _be_.

 

Alec felt a low growl start in his throat at the sight before him, and at Camille’s smug smile. Izzy caught his arm just as he was about to launch himself at the vampire and stake her right then and there for daring to touch what was _his_  (and wow, apparently “pissed off and tired”-Alec was also “very possessive”-Alec).

 

“We need her, big brother” she whispered and then turned her attention back to listen to whatever it was that Camille was talking about. Alec wasn’t really listening, he was too busy taking in the startled and slightly broken look on Magnus’ face. When the warlock finally met Alec’s eyes, he looked almost… pleading. Alec frowned, confused, it was a look he’d never seen on the other man before. Magnus was the High Warlock of Brooklyn, he was the most powerful person in that room. Magnus Bane did not beg. And yet, right now the man was looking at Alec as if he was begging the Shadowhunter to not be angry with him, to forgive him.

_Why?_  

Alec was just about to voice his question when it hit him: Magnus thought that Alec blamed him for the kiss.

 

_By the Angel_ , he thought and then, as he studied the warlock closer, he noticed how Magnus flinched slightly each time one of Camille’s hands graced his arm, and how his eyes lacked their usual glow and life. Magnus looked like… He looked like an abusive-victim, Alec realized. With that realization, Alec’s anger blossomed again. But not because the vampire-bitch kept touching what was _his_ , but because she was obviously making Magnus uncomfortable. She was obviously trying to _hurt_  him.

 

“I don’t have time for this”, Alec snapped, now desperate to move on from whatever topic it was that was making Magnus increasingly uncomfortable and, more importantly, desperate to get Magnus _away_  from this poisonous woman. He saw panic fill Magnus’ eyes and wanted nothing more than to gather the other man up in his arms to reassure him that everything was going to be okay, that Alec wasn’t angry at _him_. But he couldn’t, not as long as Camille was in the same room as them and would only use the warlock’s vulnerability for further mockery (which would inevitably lead to Alec chopping her head off, and apparently that wasn’t allowed just yet) .

 

Before Alec could give in to the impulse of grabbing Magnus’ hand and dragging him out of there, to try and get the _spark_  that was currently missing back into those beautiful eyes of his, Clary and Simon entered the room. Alec looked between the two as they explained the terms of the contract to Camille. Where Clary looked like a woman on a mission, Simon looked a bit like someone who’d already lost. Alec frowned at that. Why wouldn’t he be happy about the prospect of getting Jocelyn out of her cursed state? From what he’d gathered under the short amount of time he’d known the two, Jocelyn appeared to have been almost like a second mother to Simon. Saving her should be making him happy and, if possible, even _more_  obnoxious than usual. It shouldn’t be turning the boy into this empty shell that was currently standing in front of Camille whilst Clary spoke.

 

Camille - the thought of the name brought Alec’s focus back to her and, more specifically, the nails she was currently - and absentmindedly it seemed - running up and down Magnus’ arm. The view made Alec’s rage flare up again and he tightened his fists at his sides in an attempt to keep from jumping her.

 

“Okay then, lead the way to the Book of the White, _vampire_ ” Clary said, and Alec saw how Simon flinched at the way she spat the word, as if it was beneath her to even mention it. 

 

He didn’t even like Simon, and still he found himself wanting to reassure him that being a vampire, being a downworlder over all, didn’t make him less important; worth any less than anyone else. 

 

After having spent the night hearing his mother spit out the fact that Magnus was a _warlock_  was a bigger issue than the fact that he was a man (that’s not to say she didn’t find that little fact troublesome as well, of course), Alec had somehow unknowingly taken up the fight against racism towards downworlders. It made his blood boil that so many of his own kind thought themselves better than downworlders, and even mundanes, simply because they had angel-blood in their veins. They thought themselves to have the right to torture, kill and overall disrespect downworlders simply because of how they were born. 

 

That Clary was obviously picking up this trait, albeit probably unknowingly, was actually very worrying. Alec had disliked Clary from the second he’d laid eyes on her, but even he would admit to the fact that she’d at the very least been kind at heart. It appeared the shadowhunter-life was slowly turning her into something she was not.

 

But that was an issue he’d have to think about at a later date. For now, his focus needed to be on getting Magnus away from the poisonous bitch standing beside him.

Actually, his focus should be on acquiring the Book of the White. But in Alec’s eyes, Magnus took priority at that moment.

 

Camille walked out of the apartment, letting her eyes roam over Alec’s body and smirking at him as she passed. Clary and Izzy followed her quickly, but Simon seemed to hang back. Alec wanted to ask him to leave, but then the vampire turned to Magnus and spoke.

 

“I’m so sorry, Magnus. I didn’t know. I wouldn’t have… I would have been in here if I had known”, he said, his face scrunched up in an apologetic frown. Magnus hadn’t moved from his spot, looking at the door where the women had disappeared, but now he looked towards Simon and a small, almost sad, smile grew on his lips. Alec’s heart tightened at the sight.

 

“I know” he said, and Simon nodded and was about to follow the others out, when Magnus continued:

“He will forgive you, you know. Raphael is stubborn, but he isn’t stupid. He will forgive you”, and Alec saw hope light up Simon’s eyes, before he closed them and shook his head.

 

“I’m not so sure about that, but thank you”, he whispered and then went out of the door before anyone could say anything else.

 

Magnus mumbled something under his breath and took a step as if to follow the group, but Alec reached out before he could, stopping him mid-step by grabbing a hold of the warlock’s wrist.

 

“Magnus”, he began but was cut off by Magnus’ finger on his mouth. The gesture was so familiar from the first night they had actually had a chance to talk, just the two of them, that Alec could have smiled. But the broken look in Magnus’ eyes made his heart hurt too much for that to be possible.

 

“Don’t. Please don’t say anything, not now. I can’t… I just… I will explain everything to you, I promise.  Just… please don’t think it was what it looked like. _Please_ ” he said.

 

Alec had never seen Magnus beg, not even when he was trying to convince the shadowhunter to stop the sham that was his wedding. The warlock wasn’t even looking him in the eyes, and Alec wished he would just _look_  at him. Then he’d see. He’d see that Alec wasn’t angry with him, that he understood. So, grabbing Magnus’ hand and removing the finger from his mouth, he voiced his wish.

 

“Magnus, look at me”, he said. Hesitantly, as if he was preparing to have his heart broken, Magnus looked up into Alec’s eyes and the shadowhunter let a small, reassuring, smile grace his lips.

 

“I’m not angry. Well, I am quite pissed off, to be honest. But not at you”, he said and then watched as Magnus’ eyes widened in shock when the words registered.

 

“You.. But, Camille…?”

 

Alec couldn’t help but be a little bit proud of the fact that he’d managed to reduce Magnus Bane, High warlock of Brooklyn and magnificently flirtatious at all times, to confused stuttering. Lifting his hand to Magnus’ cheek and letting his thumb caress the warlock’s cheekbone, Alec decided to ease all Magnus’ worries about the kiss Camille had forced him into.

 

“You risked so much when you stormed my wedding. For some reason I don’t completely understand yet, you’ve been flirting with me and trying to get a date out of me for weeks. I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t do all of that if you were just going to turn around and throw it away for someone like _Camille_. I know you two dated, I know you loved her once, but I also know that your eyes, your whole body in fact, were screaming with how uncomfortable you were when she was touching you. So no, I’m not angry. Not at you”, he said, and he felt a tear slip from the warlock’s eye as he leaned into Alec’s touch. Magnus opened his eyes from where he’d closed them as the shadowhunter was speaking, and Alec’s heart sang when he saw that the light had returned to them.

 

“You never cease to amaze me, Alexander” he said, and Alec finally gave in to the urge he’d had earlier, sliding his hand away from Magnus’ cheek and around his neck to cradle the back of his skull as he wrapped the shorter man in his arms, his head held against Alec’s heart. He felt Magnus give a relieved sigh and smiled softly as strong arms circled his own waist. Alec made a promise right then and there, to protect Magnus from any harm, physically or psychologically, that he possibly could.

 

They stood like that for just a few seconds, each drawing strength from the other, before Magnus sighed and put some distance between them. Alec wasn’t quite ready to let go of him yet and kept his hand on Magnus’ cheek, smiling softly as the warlock leaned into the touch and placed one of his hands above Alec’s with a soft hum.

 

“As much as I’d like to stay here and preferably avoid any and all interaction with Camille, the others will need our help in finding that book. We should follow them”, Magnus said and stepped away from Alec to follow the others. The shadowhunter watched him walk out of the room, his smile falling slightly. His whole being screamed at him to not let Magnus anywhere near Camille, but there was nothing he could do. They needed her in order to wake Clary’s mother up, and they needed Magnus to make sure she didn’t screw them completely.

  
_Well, just because he needs to be in the room doesn’t mean he needs to let her touch him_ , Alec thought as he jogged to catch up with the warlock.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for all the love I've gotten so far! I wasn't going to post this chapter just yet, but I just got so happy from the comments I figured it might make you smile so!

Walking into the apartment on the upper east side, the first words that came to Alec’s mind was: “Who reads all of these books?”. Looking at Camille, he didn’t take her for much of a reader. She seemed proud of her library of a “home” though, and Alec really just wanted to get The book of the white and get out of there, not start a fight and have it take even longer than it had to. So he didn’t say anything, just looked around and marveled at all the titles.

 

He got lost in the thought of having a place like this for himself, a place where he could wind down and just spend hours upon hours to read, to not worry about the world ending and people dying. To just _be_. Before he knew it, he’d walked up to one of the bookshelves and started reading on the back of some books, to see if maybe he recognized some of them.

He was quickly reeled back into reality, however, as chills suddenly ran down his back. Turning around, he saw Camille whispering something in Magnus’ ear, the warlock tensing up at her words.

 

_Damnit, I shouldn’t have let myself be distracted_ , he thought as he hurriedly returned to Magnus’ side to offer his silent support and strength, his hand sneaking into Magnus’ and squeezing it. Trying to, without words, tell him that everything was going to be okay. That he’d be rid of this bitch soon.

 

Camille watched their interaction, a gleeful smile spreading on her lips.

“You haven’t have you?” she said, obviously referring to whatever it was she’d been whispering in Magnus’ ear, eyes raised in something Alec was sure was meant to look like surprise but was anything but.

“So how were you planning on going about this relationship of yours then? Are you going to watch this nephilim of yours grow old and die while you stay young forever? Are you expecting him to actually _want_  to spend the rest of his life with a man who can never grow old with him? None of the others did. Why waste what fleeting time one has with someone to whom you will never be more than a footnote amongst a thousand footnotes? You know I’m right, Magnus. That is why we were so good, you and I, both of us immortal. We’ll spend eternity together Magnus.”

Alec listened to her little speech, too shocked, too angry, to actually say anything. He was just about to say screw The book of the white and rid the vampire-bitch of her head, when Izzy called out from the other side of the room.

“You know, Camille, that’s not a good look for you. I mean the whole “desperate old hag”-thing you’ve got going on right now.”

The vampire turned around and sneered at the other woman, but wasn’t able to do anything before Simon was in front of her and, in a challenging tone, told his sire:

“You attack either of them, and I’m not signing anything. I don’t sign that document and you’ll go back to being locked in a box, or worse if the clave catches you. So, what’s it going to be?”

Camille looked the younger vampire up and down, and finally straightened her back with a smirk.

“Let’s get to signing that document and finding that book then, shall we?” she said, walking towards a small desk in the corner to lay the document down.

“You sign first, then you get the book”

Clary started to protest, and Alec found the urge to kill the female vampire return with a vengeance.

“Okay, but you hurt anyone of these people in here and we’ll all swear up and down that you forced me into signing this, deal?”

Alec moved to protest against Simon’s decision, knowing they couldn’t possibly trust her word under any circumstances, but Magnus squeezed his hand in a way of telling him to calm down, to trust Simon knew what he was doing this one time. So, Alec did. He relaxed and let his shoulder bump slightly against Magnus’, stomach fluttering at the small smile that the action coaxed out of the warlock, even if the other man still looked stiff from Camille’s words earlier. Alec found himself unable to look away from the other man, wondering if, when all of this was over and Camille wasn’t in the same room as them anymore, he was allowed to kiss Magnus? They had already had their first kiss, of course, but Alec had never done this before and so he wasn’t sure how Magnus felt about kissing him again so soon. He wanted to. He wanted to reassure Magnus that even though he had no idea whether or not they’d be together for as long as he lived, Alec knew without a doubt that he could never leave Magnus just because the warlock would never die from age. He wanted to tell Magnus that he thought he might be in love with him, as silly as that might seem after the short amount of time they’d known each other. He just wanted to watch Magnus relax into himself again, and he wanted to go on that date they kept being interrupted from going on.

 

“The book is somewhere in this apartment, but the warlock Dot hid it so even I didn’t know where it was. You’ll just have to look for it, I guess!” Camille exclaimed before snatching the paper from Simon’s hand and running out in vampire-speed. Izzy looked like she was about to burst with anger and Clary looked about ready to cry from pure frustration. Simon’s expression, however, didn’t look very different from Magnus, as if the two of them had expected this from her all along. When he saw Magnus give a slight nod of gratitude towards the young vampire, Alec understood why Simon had signed the document before they had the book. He’d done it so she’d leave them. Since she didn’t know where it was anyway, Camille would just have spent the time tormenting them with cruel words. Alec found himself growing a little bit less hateful towards the fledgling.

 

As the others started to look through the book-cases, Alec decided he needed to make sure Magnus was doing okay, as well as make sure they weren’t attacked while they were searching.

“I’m gonna go check the perimeter” he said and as if he’d heard the shadowhunter’s thoughts, Magnus perked up and said:

“Good idea! If I know Camille, she’ll have a trick or three up her sleeve“

Alec smiled at him before dragging the man out of the room.

 

*******

 

“Hey”, Magnus stopped and tugged on the shadowhunter’s hand to make Alec turn and look at him when they were out of the room.

 

“I actually _do_  need to check for traps, Camille can’t be trusted. Why don’t you go sweep the perimeter real quick and I’ll meet you back here when I’m done? I feel like we have a few things to discuss”, he said, trying to gauge Alec’s reaction.

 

He wanted to blame Camille for doing this to his and Alec’s relationship, but in the end she had been right. Magnus should have thought about the issue with his immortality before he let himself fall for Alexander. He knew how this panned out, how it always panned out.

 

Alec would most likely tell Magnus that it was over. The only difference in this case, compared to all the other times, would be that Alec, his Alexander, wouldn’t be saying it because he didn’t want to spend his fleeting time on earth with Magnus (their relationship was still too new to know if they would have stayed together until Alec’s death). No, Alec would be saying it because he didn’t want Magnus to have to suffer through the shadowhunter’s aging and then eventual death. Alec, selfless and wonderful Alexander Lightwood, would break Magnus’ heart to save him from the agony of watching his boyfriend die.

 

He also knew that there was nothing he’d be able to say to convince Alec otherwise, to convince him that nobody knew what the future held and even if it would lead to Magnus grieving for him, why deny themselves happiness to avoid potential agony? Magnus knew that if Alec walked away from him now, he’d be grieving that loss for the next century. He hadn’t been lying when he’d told the shadowhunter that he’d unlocked something in the warlock, something he’d closed himself off from ever feeling again.

 

His thoughts were interrupted by Alec’s hand on his chin, lifting it up to meet the other man’s beautiful hazel eyes, Magnus could spend the rest of eternity just looking into those eyes and never tire.

 

_I’m so gone for this man, it’s ridiculous_ , he thought bitterly, his heart already breaking with the words he expected to fall from the shadowhunter’s lips.

 

“I’m not going anywhere” Alec said, as if he’d heard Magnus’ thoughts, and the warlock’s’ eyes widened in surprise.

“I’m being selfish, I know that. I should probably let you go, since my death might one day hurt you. But I don’t want to, Magnus. I just… I don’t actually know if I _can_  let you go without even knowing what this… This… Us could be. I.. I don’t… mmph” Magnus interrupted whatever it was Alec was going to say, his heart singing and his whole body screaming for the other man. Cupping Alec’s face in his hands, he crashed their lips together in a desperate kiss. Alec froze in shock the first few seconds, and then Magnus felt his lips moving against the warlock’s own, a soft moan escaping him, and the warlock felt as if his heart would burst out of his chest from how fast it was beating. Moving one hand to rest above the shadowhunter’s heart, he could feel that Alec’s heart was beating just as fast, Magnus couldn’t help the smile that broke out on his lips at that realization and he let it break the kiss.

 

“You never seize to amaze me, Alexander”, he breathed against Alec’s lips, letting his other hand slide from the shadowhunter’s cheek to circle his neck and into the raven-black hair as he stood up on his toes to place a chaste kiss at the corner of Alec’s lips. Magnus stepped back as the other man tried to deepen it once again, smiling at the faint blush that decorated Alec’s cheeks, and shaking his head before bringing them both back to reality.

 

“I’m sorry, my darling Alexander, but we still have work to do”, he said and then turned to start searching to potential traps. His whole body felt alight and Magnus couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt so invincible; like he could do anything.

 

Of course, that was when everything went to hell.

 

*******

 

Alec was in a daze as he watched Magnus walk away. He reached up to touch his lips with his fingers, unable to contain the small, giddy, smile that spread over his face. He hadn’t expected _that_  to happen, but Alec wasn’t complaining. He couldn’t help but think that he could spend the rest of his life kissing Magnus and that was all he’d ever need. Right now, however, Magnus was right and they _did_  have work to do. They needed to find the Book of the White and help save Jocelyn. The reminder of the book brought back memories of Camille and how she’d so obviously been enjoying torturing Magnus earlier.

 

_After all this is over, I’m going to make sure that bitch can never hurt another soul ever again_ , he thought to himself.

 

Shaking his head to clear it, Alec turned around and walked in the opposite direction to Magnus, out to check the perimeter.

 

He walked around the house, checking every corner where someone might be lying in wait, but when he found nothing he decided to go back inside to see if maybe he could help with something else. Anything to hurry the whole process up and get out of the flat as soon as possible, the place was giving him the creeps. The second he walked in through the door, however, he was met with a panicked blur of fiery red hair.

“Alec! He’s gone! I can’t find him! He just turned my back for like a _second_  and he disappeared! You have to help me!” Clary screamed as she ran towards him and Alec frowned confused.

“Wait, who are you talking about, who is gone?” he asked, grabbing her arms to still her movements.

“Simon! He’s gone! Oh my god, what if Camille took him!? We need to find him _now_  Alec!” she ranted and Alec agreed that it was a very real possibility that Camille could have taken Simon. If she had though, Alec was pretty sure the young vampire didn’t have much time, if any.

“Yeah, let me just grab Magnus. He can help us track Simon” he said and turned towards where the warlock had walked off earlier, Clary following closely behind.

 

A few minutes later, Alec’s heart pounded as he walked into yet another room, frantically searching for the warlock.

“MAGNUS!?” he called out for what must have been the tenth or twentieth time, he really couldn’t be sure. All he knew was that yet again, there was no answer to his call.

“Alec, over here!” Clary shouted from the other side of the room. Alec ran towards her, internally praying for something, anything, that would let him know where Magnus was.

 

He stopped as Clary rose from where she’d been crouched down and turned around to meet his eyes.

“What is it?” he demanded. She didn’t say anything, simply held out her hand for him to see the object she’d found. Alec looked down at it and felt his heart stop as he realized what the object meant.

“She took him”, he whispered, reaching out to take the ring with the claw that Magnus had been wearing earlier. Clary nodded at his words.

“She took both of them”, she said, a sob breaking her words. Alec felt his blood start to boil with rage. Could he not have one day of happiness, of peace, without someone trying to ruin it? And had Magnus not suffered enough at the hands of this bitch!? He didn’t know exactly _why_  Camille had taken the two men, and to be quite honest he really didn’t care much about her intentions. All he knew was that he needed to get them back, and fast. For that, however, he was going to need some help.

 

Thinking back to what he’d seen in Simon’s eyes earlier after Magnus’ words to him, Alec knew just who would help him.

“We need to call Raphael”, he said and walked towards the exit of the apartment. The book could wait, right now he had much more important things to worry about and he was pretty sure Clary agreed with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked it, please let me know in the comments or come scream at me on Tumblr, you find me at: **PrincessOfMalec**
> 
> Next chapter we get some Raphael's POV and more Saphael!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all: Thank you so much for all the love this fic has gotten so far. I'm completely blown away and reading your comments just makes me so happy! So thank you for that! <3
> 
> Second of all: This is my first time ever writing Raphael, so I really hope I did him justice _(Thank you to Claudia, @heyimfangirl on Tumblr, for reading through it and reassuring me about this!)_ , please let me know what you thought!

“He’s not going to help us, Alec. This is just a waste of time, we need to find out where Camille took Simon and Magnus!” Clary said as they walked into the Hotel Dumort, Alec took a deep breath to try and control his irritation with the younger shadowhunter. She was, after all, the whole reason to why Raphael would have an issue in helping them in the first place.

 

“He’s not going to help _you_ , you mean. Stay here” he said and pointed towards a chair before continuing on towards the vampire’s office.

 

*******

Raphael Santiago was many things: He was a latino and catholic man, a piano player, a writer and a lover of solitude . He was a lot of things, but he was _not_  a man who dwelled on people. That might have been because he had never actually allowed a person to get close to him, not since the promise he’d made himself on his mother’s funeral.

 

He’d spent longer than he’d like to remember under Camille’s rule, following her orders and getting close enough to be able to save his clan from her poisonous claws. Doing that had been all he’d focused on for the past 20 years, the only thing that had been important. He’d closed himself off from everything and everyone else, spending his days gaining more and more influence over the other members of the clan without Camille noticing. All had been going well. No one was drinking mundane-blood anymore, Camille being the exception of course, and the clan was closer to each other than they had ever been. If a fight were to break out, which Raphael had no doubt it would considering all of the Clave-rules their leader had been breaking, the clan would be able to fight like one strong entity rather than many small ones. It was all going perfectly according to plan.

 

Then _he_  had come along and somehow managed to break down all of Raphael’s carefully built up walls.

 

Simon Lewis. He wasn’t supposed to have been anything but the mundane they'd captured in order to get the Mortal Cup from the shadowhunters. Another order from Camille he’d followed. As soon as he’d gotten the order, Raphael had realized that it would have to be the last one he ever followed. There was no chance he was going to let Camille have the mortal cup and all the power it contained, she was far too dangerous for that.

 

That didn’t mean that he was going to give any special care to the mundane they had kidnapped for her, other than help him get out of there to gain favor with the shadowhunters as the soon to be new clan-leader for the new york vampires.

But as soon as he was left alone with the other man, he’d felt his walls slowly crumbling down, one after another. He’d been almost grateful when Camille had dismissed him and beyond relieved when he’d finally gotten the mundane out of the hotel and back with the shadowhunters.

 

That was supposed to have been the last Raphael saw of Simon. The other man was supposed to go on living his life as a mundane, slowly forgetting about Raphael’s existence. Their meeting was _supposed_ to blur into nothing but an unpleasant memory for the both of them. But of course, he should have guessed that Camille wouldn’t let anyone leave her lair without trying one last trick to ruin their lives.

 

He knew, the second he smelled Simon outside of the hotel the first time, what had happened. He could already see how stubbornly curious the man was and where that would lead him eventually. That little fact didn’t stop the vampire from trying to scare him away though, and for almost a day there was a small hope that he’d succeeded.

 

Then he’d walked in on Simon with Camille in the lounge-area he’d first taken the mundane to, and he’d known instantly that the other man wouldn’t be leaving the room alive.

 

In the end, it had been Simon’s death and transformation into a vampire that had given him the perfect opportunity to overthrow Camille for the leadership, and Raphael thought that maybe he should have been happy about that. But instead he felt his unbeating heart break over again as he thought of how broken the newly turned vampire had looked as he said the words Raphael himself had thought so many times:

_I am a monster_

 

It had turned out that even the sorrow and pain of becoming one of the night children did little to clench Simon’s natural positivity and the man actually thrived as a part of the clan, once he’d finally conceded to join them that was.

 

Raphael found himself constantly in a state of being partly proud of and irritated with the younger vampire. Simon had a way of gaining the love of even the toughest members of the clan, though, and Raphael realized with slight horror that his carefully crafted walls that had stood for decades, had been reduced to nothing but dust in just a couple of weeks.

 

He would watch as Simon trained with Stan, a small and unwilling smile playing on his lips as the younger vampire hooted in victory when he landed a blow successfully. He’d slowly but surely start to relax in the other’s presence and they would spend hours upon hours into the early afternoons sitting in Raphael’s room, Simon chatting away about one thing or another while Raphael got some paperwork done.

 

Simon Lewis had become a constant presence in his life and Raphael found that he craved and longed for it whenever the other man wasn’t around. What had scared him the most, however, was the way he would feel his stomach flutter with every smile his rare jokes would draw from the other man. Not because he was surprised of his attraction to Simon, but because of the power such a feeling held over him.

 

His fears had been proved right by how he’d felt his unbeating heart clench at the sight of Simon helping the shadowhunter-girl break Camille out of the well-earned prison Raphael had put her in. The betrayal he’d felt at that moment had hurt more than he’d even thought possible and before he could even give it a second thought, he’d heard his own voice put a kill-order on the man. The man he’d slowly but surely been falling in love with.

 

“Sir? There’s a shadowhunter here to see you”

Raphael frowned at the words and rose from his seat behind the desk.

“How many times have I told you not to call me ‘sir’, Emanuel?” he said and the other vampire ducked his head in recognition.

“Pérdon. What would you like me to do with the man?” Emanuel prompted and Raphael rolled his neck to relieve some tension before answering:

“Let him in”

 

After what had happened during their last meeting with shadowhunters, which was only a few hours ago, Raphael was more than a little surprised that one would dare show his face at the Hotel Dumort at the time.

 

_Must be something really important then_

 

*******

Alec pushed his way past the vampire into Raphael’s office. Under any other circumstances he would have taken care to not offend them in any way, especially considering what his sister and Clary had done just a few hours earlier, but this time he really didn’t have any time to care about that. Both Magnus and Simon had a limited amount of time before they’d no doubt be killed… or worse.

 

The door had barely even closed behind him before he spoke:

“Camille has taken Magnus and Simon. I need your help to find them and _fast_ ”

 

Raphael’s eyes widened at his words and Alec knew before he even said anything, that he’d been right in this decision. The vampire took a deep breath and as he breathed out, Alec could almost swear that his eyes became a shade darker than before.

  
“I get to kill her”, he said with a growl and although Alec wanted nothing more than to rip Camille’s heart out of her chest himself, he found himself nodding at the words; saving Magnus was the only thing that mattered and if letting Raphael kill Camille was the prize then it was one Alec was more than prepared to pay. As long as the bitch got turned to dust, he didn’t much care who did the deed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading this far, I really hope you liked it!
> 
> Let me know your thoughts in the comments or come find my askbox on tumblr: **PrincessOfMalec**
> 
> Also: I'm really sorry! This chapter wasn't actually supposed to be another cliffhanger, but considering where I'm starting the next one, it just felt right to end it here. Actually, I kind of blame the fact that I really wanted to give Raphael a proper introduction and it became a bit longer than I had planned.
> 
> Also 2: I have no idea if Raphael is canonically a piano player or a writer, I just really like those headcanons soooo (a)


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys,  
> I am so so sorry that this is late! My dog isn't doing very well and I've just been spending a lot of time with her and haven't really been all that inspired to be quite honest. I am so very sorry!
> 
> To hopefully win back some of your love (because you're probably going to hate me some after this chapter), I do promise to post the next chapter very soon. This one and the next were supposed to be _one_ chapter, actually, but then some parts got to be a bit longer than planned and so I decided to split it in two so I could post it for you!
> 
> I hope you like it. It's actually my first time writing Camille, sort of, so I hope you find I did a decent job at that!
> 
> Anyway, enjoy!

“Wakie wakie, Lover”

 

Magnus opened his eyes to the offending sing song-voice in his ear only to flinch slightly at just how close the woman was. The last thing he remembered was feeling on top of the world after Alec had told him that he wasn’t leaving him, then he remembers a flash and feeling dizzy before passing out. Obviously, he’d stepped into one of the traps he’d been there to find so they could _avoid_.

 

Closing his eyes again to clear his head, he started to mentally check himself for injuries. His chest hurt slightly and his head was still pounding from being knocked out, but the worst of it all was the strain his arms were taking from being hung from some type of hook or something. Magnus took a deep breath and tried to move his hands enough to grasp the rope he was tied with, to try and lift himself up some. But since he’d most likely been hanging that way for at least a couple of hours, his arms gave away almost immediately and he fell back down with a pained grimace.

 

“Try not to wear yourself out too much, would you? I need you to be somewhat alert for later”, Camille said and Magnus returned his attention to her. She smirked at him as she stepped away towards something, or rather _someone_ , a few meters next to him. The person was hanging much in the same way but with some type of siphoning tool, judging by the blood that was running through the tube and into the plastic bag it was connected to, attached to their neck. They were unconscious though and Magnus sent off a prayer that they were still alive when Camille slid the syringe out of the vein forcefully enough that it must have hurt them. When she grabbed their face to turn it up towards her before she slapped their cheek to wake them up, Magnus could finally make out who it was.

_Simon_

 

“Wake up!” she shouted at the younger vampire and Magnus winced in sympathy at the painful groan the boy let out.

 

Apparently deciding Simon was awake enough, Camille turned her attentions towards Magnus once again.

 

“Oh Magnus, my sweet innocent little Mags. What am I going to do with you?” she said, an almost exasperated tone in her voice.

“My suggestion is let both me and the fledgling over there go free and then maybe, oh I don’t know, disappear off of the face of the earth? How about that?” he answered a bit sarcastically. He knew very well that if Camille had both him and Simon here, then she needed something from the both of them. Magnus guessed it must be a spell of some kind. Judging by the blood she’d siphoned from the younger vampire, it was black magic. Which meant people were going to get hurt if she wasn’t stopped.

 

There was nothing he could do though, he was stuck in place and couldn’t move even an inch to get free. He tried to reach for his magic to try and loosen the knot of the rope, but no matter how hard he tried, something was blocking him.

 

“You know, if you’d just stop resisting so much, you’d see how good you and I were together", Camille said and sighed before she continued:

"Oh well, you’ll come crawling back to me eventually. You always do.”

She walked slowly back up towards the warlock and ran a finger up his torso, frowning slightly as her hand caught in the fabric of his shirt.

“This just won’t do, now will it?” she tutted before grabbing the hem of the shirt and ripping it open. She looked him over with a satisfied smile and Magnus had to hold back a gag as her hands mapped out his chest in slow strokes.

“You were always beautiful, Magnus. But beauty isn’t all for a mortal, I’m afraid. Do you really think he’ll still want you when he realizes you’ll never age with him? Why would he want to waste his life on someone who will just move on to the next one after he’s dead and rotting in the ground? He’ll leave you, just like everyone else, and it’ll be all because of _what_  you are,” she whispered in his ear, nibbling lightly on his earlobe, and Magnus closed his eyes to try and block her out. He let his mind wander to the first time he’d laid eyes on Alec, his Alexander.

 

He remembered how his breath had hitched as the arrow flew by his head and he’d looked up to see that the most gorgeous angel had been the one to save his life. Alec hadn’t even noticed him, too focused on the job of finding out who the assassin had been. But Magnus remembered feeling one of the many locks he’d put on his heart slowly click open. He remembered feeling like he’d found something he'd spent all of his long life looking for.

 

That thought had been what had woken him up from the trans the man unknowingly had put him under and he’d fled the scene as fast as he’d been able.

 

Their first real meeting had been like something out of the hundreds of romance novels Magnus had read in his many years. The way their eyes had connected, and by the angel what beautiful eyes his nephilim had, and how they’d just stared at each other for what felt like both too long and not long enough at the same time. He remembers how Alec’s stuttering words and that beautiful smile of his had made Magnus’ heart sing. He’d known right at that moment that Alec was his soulmate, the person he’d been born to eventually fall in love with.

 

 _He’ll come for me_ , he thought with a smile as he remembered Alec’s words from the night before. Or was it just a couple of hours? He had no idea how long they had been in this place. But judging by how pale Simon looked, even for a vampire, and how much his arms hurt from hanging this way they must have been here for almost a day's’ time.

 

“Hey!”

The warlock snapped back into the present with the hard slap to his cheek. He opened his eyes to Camille’s rage-filled snarl, which quickly turned into a mocking smile.

“How naive you still are. You think he’ll come for you, still? Oh Magnus, when will you learn that no one will ever choose you?,” she said, laughing as if the mere thought was ridiculous. She turned to Simon then, as if she’d just thought of something.

“I suppose you at least have someone who might care about you enough to at the very least consider it. How about you, my sweet caramel? Would your shadowhunter-friend even bother trying to save a _vampire_  like yourself? We both know Raphael isn’t saving you this time, now don’t we? In fact, if he wouldn’t be dead after I’m done, then he’d probably thank me for turning your traitorous ass into dust. Don’t you think?”

 

Magnus’ heart twisted in his chest at the accepting look on Simon’s face as she spoke. Like he genuinely thought that Raphael wanted him dead, as if he’d already accepted his fate.

 

*******

When Raphael had given the order for his death, Simon had felt as if someone had reached into his chest and grabbed his heart, twisting it painfully with every second that went by. Camille’s words felt as if the hand finally ripped his unbeating heart out of his useless body and he found himself almost longing for the cold embrace of death.

 

Because she was right, Raphael would most likely not give two shits about whether or not he was dead. In fact, Simon was pretty sure that to the older vampire, he was already considered dead from the second they’d left with Camille. There would be no one to save him this time. Not even Clary would come this time. He knew she loved him like a brother, but he also knew that she was probably too focused on finding the book to save her mother to even notice he’d gone missing from the apartment.

 

He only wished he wasn’t alone in this, he only wished that the last face he’d see in this world wouldn’t be Camille’s. But then again, he couldn’t help but think that if he wasn’t deserving of it, then he wouldn’t be so alone.

 

_If he wouldn’t be dead after I’m done_

 

The meaning of Camille’s words hit him like a freight train and Simon felt his fangs grow out as his fury rose.

“You stay the fuck away from him!” he hissed, throwing himself at her only to be stopped by the ropes keeping him stuck on the hook he was hanging on.

 

“Or what, Caramel? What exactly are you going to do other than watch helplessly as I rip out his worthless throat? What are you going to do as I turn his body into dust?” Camille harshly as she walked up to him. She grasped his jaw roughly in one hand and forced his eyes to stay on hers as she continued:

“ _Nothing_ , is the answer my dear. Oh what an exciting yet worthless thing love is, don’t you think? They say it is the most powerful thing in the world, and yet it will not help you when you watch the man you love die by my hand,” she stated as if it was a factual future that Simon could do nothing to change. The image of Raphael dying before his eyes had his blood boiling with rage and he let out a warning growl. He opened his mouth to speak, only to be cut off by someone he hadn’t even noticed was there before.

 

“One might think you were jealous that Raphael caught the interest of your little fledgling, Camille”, the voice said and Simon glanced towards it only to find Magnus strapped up much like himself. His attention was quickly returned to Camille, however, when she let go of his jaw in disgust. She walked up to a table and picked up something that looked like a cup and mixed something into it before walking towards the warlock with it.

 

“Oh no, I just happen to think that illojal subjects needs to be punished. Now, drink up so that we can finally get started here, honey”, she smiled sweetly. Simon winced in sympathy as she grabbed Magnus by the hair and forced his head back to drink whatever was in the cup. The fledgling closed his eyes against the scene, not wanting to see the torture she potion would no doubt inflict on the man.

 

A high pitched scream made him open his eyes in curiosity only to see an arrow poking out of Camille’s hand and another one flying towards her chest. She stepped back to avoid the second one and Simon watched in horror as she produced a sword seemingly out of nowhere.

“I see the cavalry has arrived. That is, if you could call one man the cavalry", she said as she let go of Magnus' hair to turn towards the intruder.

"This isn’t my first rodeo, Shadowhunter, do you really think you can take me alone?” she taunted as she moved backwards and Simon knew what was about to happen before she even started to make the move, could see it in the way she smiled as if she was enjoying what was happening.

  
He was about to die

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *hides behind pillow*
> 
> I'm sorry for yet another cliff-hanger! I do promise to post the next chapter very soon!
> 
> Please let me know what you thought in the comments and maybe scream a bit at me on Tumblr: **PrincessOfMalec**


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys,  
> I am so _so_ sorry for the delay in updating this! I can't believe it's been since September! I'll be honest and say that I had like half of this chapter written and finished for that time, but them my muse just... left and anything and everything I wrote turned out so shitty I just deleted it again.  
>  Anyway, I am finally back and will hopefully be back to updating more regularly again! Yay!

It had been almost 24 hours since the shadowhunters had come for his help in finding out where Camille had taken Simon and Magnus, and Raphael was running out of options. 

 

“I think we’ve found them!” Stan announced as he walked into the office with Lily at his back. Both Raphael and Alec looked up from where they were going through books in search of any type of tracking spell that could help them.

“Where?” Alec demanded rather than asked and Raphael nodded for the two vampires to continue.

“Well, it’s more of a way to find them than an actual location”, Lily clarified with a stern look at Stan, clearly irritated with him for getting their hopes up when their solution might not work. Raphael rose from his seat at the desk and walked up to take the book from Stan’s hands. He quickly read through the page and nodded his agreement before giving the book to Alec for further confirmation.

“You’re right, this should work. Good job,” he said and turned to go find the ingredients they’d need for the spell.

“Wait!” Alec stopped him with a hand on his arm and Raphael raised his eyebrows at the gesture. The shadowhunter didn’t let go, however, just lifted his eyes off of the page to stare at Raphael.

“This would tie you to him. If he dies then…” he trailed off and Raphael reached up to detach Alec’s hand from his arm.

“Then I die with him”, he finished the sentence, locking eyes with the other man to make sure he got his point across without having to actually say the words. Alec seemed to get the meaning and only nodded before gesturing for the vampire to lead the way.

 

During the hours they had been working together, Raphael found himself growing to actually like the shadowhunter. He was passionate in his demands yet remained respectful and never forceful, as if he understood that the vampires wanted Simon and Magnus found just as much as he did. He’d sent Clary back to the institute at the first sign of a fight between her and Lily, which Raphael had been more than grateful for since he probably would have just let Lily kill the girl and that wouldn’t really have been a great idea for the future. Alec, it turned out, wasn’t much different from Raphael himself in fact; He didn’t speak if he didn’t have anything valuable to say, he was protective of the people he loved and was prepared to die in order to save someone he cared about, he seemed able to understand Raphael’s feelings and confusion in regards to Simon without the vampire having to utter a single word about it. In conclusion, Raphael found himself thinking that Magnus had indeed chosen well this time around. This man, this _shadowhunter_ , was prepared to do pretty much anything and everything in order to save the warlock’s life despite having only known him for a short period of time.

 

“I never thought I’d be grateful for Camille’s psycho possessive-manners” Raphael mumbled to himself as he stepped up to the safe Camille had hidden in the floor. Typing in the code, he stepped back and let the safe rise up for them.

 

“She has a sample of blood from every member of the clan?” Alec said, disgust evident in his tone of voice and Raphael nodded in confirmation as he searched through the safe for the sample he was looking for.

“Yeah. You’ve got to hand it to her though, at least she’s organized”, he said picking up a vial of Simon’s blood and closing the safe again. Alec just waved his hand in a gesture to get on with what they were doing and Raphael nodded in agreement. If his heart could still beat, he was pretty sure it would be racing with the panic he was trying desperately not to let show. They’d already lost precious time researching ways to track the two, Magnus and Simon might not have all that long left.

_Dios, por favor que no sea demasiado tarde_

 

*******

Alec watched as the vampire assembled the ingredients for the spell, anxiously looking at the large clock ticking away on the wall behind him. He couldn’t stop imagining all the ways in which Magnus was hurting while they were wasting hour upon hour just researching ways to _find_  them, and it was making him restless. He wasn’t used to just sitting around waiting for someone else to finish their work before he could go save the people he cared about, and it was driving him insane.

 

“Okay, you’re gonna have to leave before this next part”

Alec looked towards the vampire and frowned.

“Why?”

He didn’t even know why he was questioning it, he just knew that he wanted to know where Magnus was the minute Raphael found out.

“Well… This is… the ceremony is a rather intimate and personal one, and I’d rather not a shadowhunter be present when me and my… Simon..” the clan leader started explaining, clearly not all that happy having to explain himself, and a light went off in Alec’s mind.

“Oh! Sorry, just.. I just…” He stuttered as he hurried out of the office.

“Yeah yeah, get out! We don’t have a lot of time here!” Raphael waved him out before turning back towards the kettle he was pouring the ingredients into and starting a chant in what sounded like latin.

 

*******

 

Raphael paced the room, praying intensely for the bond between him and Simon to form. It had been five minutes since he’d finished the spell and the waiting was driving him insane.

He knew that, provided it took hold, drinking the elixir would bind him to Simon for the rest of his immortal life. He also knew that unless Simon chose to complete the ceremony, which Raphael had very strong doubts the fledgling would actually _want_ , the unrequited bond would weaken the clan leader severely. He didn’t care though. The second he’d found out that Camille had taken the two, nothing had mattered more than getting back his best friend and the man who had managed to make his unbeating heart flutter.

 

“Anything?” Alec asked anxiously and Raphael glared at him. It wasn’t Alec’s fault the bond hadn’t taken yet, but Raphael just couldn’t help but take out some of his frustration on him all the same.

“No. Not yet, I think that…”

Before he could finish the sentence, his breath was knocked out of him as an invisible force slammed into him.

 

A small flame of light ignited in a part of his heart he’d ignored and hidden away from for so long, he’d almost forgotten about its existence all together.

_Simon,_  he thought and, closing his eyes to focus, he willed the light to grow stronger. The small flame even appeared to move like the fledgling, all excitement and uncontrollable sparks. Raphael smiled as it grew bigger, his chest warming with the energy it emitted. Simon was alive, at least.

 

When it seemed strong enough, he decided to try it out. Praying to the almighty God that it’d work:

_Where are you, Simon?_  he sent the thought towards the bond and as soon as the sentence was finished, his chest started pulsing and a slideshow of events filled his head. From how the other vampire had been abducted, to when he’d woken up to find Camille taunting Magnus. He could even feel the rage Simon had felt as Camille smiled about something she’d just said, though he couldn’t hear a word of what was being said. A sudden fatigue struck him suddenly and he saw the siphoning tool used to drain Simon of blood, the rage he felt wasn’t Simon’s this time. Taking a second to look around to confirm his suspicions of where she held the two, Raphael willed himself back into his own body and reality. With a gasp he opened his eyes to find Alec pacing in front of him.

 

“Tell me you got something from that”, the shadowhunter demanded and Raphael nodded before grabbing his jacket and starting to walk out of the hotel.

“Yeah, they’re not far but Simon hasn’t got long, so we need to hurry!”

 

He didn’t bother to make sure Alec was keeping up with him as he set off towards the warehouse as fast as he could.

 

*******

 

Alec stopped beside Raphael outside of the old brick-building, neither of them saying a word as they quietly surveyed the their surroundings for any threats. They’d left the city a few miles back, running through the woods for the rest of the way. Alec had known the second they’d stepped into the territory, and by the way Raphael’s back had gone rigid even as he kept moving, the other man could feel it too. Could taste the foul air and feel how the very earth itself seemed to scream at them to _turn back_. The last couple of miles had been like traveling through thick mud, the air so thick it was almost impossible to breathe as he ran.

Then, when they came within a hundred meters of the house, it finally cleared up and Alec had taken a deep breath of relief at the thought of not having to fight in those conditions.

 

“No guards?” He said eventually and Raphael did another quick scan before shaking his head.

“I don’t think so. She wouldn’t want to risk anyone betraying her whereabouts and besides, this doesn’t exactly scream ‘perfectly planned abduction’ to me, freaky nature protection-wall aside”.

Alec nodded, it might have been difficult to find out their location but the rest of the situation screamed ‘desperate and angry’ rather than ‘cunning and vicious’ to him. Even so, he wanted to hurry this up and get Magnus out of this rutten place as soon as possible.

“Okay so, plan of attack is as follows…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dios, por favor que no sea demasiado tarde - God, please don't let it be too late
> 
> Thank you to my fantastic friend Dafne over at **Alecsnotstraight** (Tumblr) for helping me out with the spanish  <3
> 
> I'm sorry this chapter took so long and I'm even more sorry it didn't solve the cliff-hanger from the last chapter! I hope you enjoyed it all the same and I promise I'll try to update more frequently (Please don't hate me)!
> 
> I changed my username of Tumblr and if you want to come over and chat/scream with me about these four and basically this show overall, you can find me at: **MatthewLightwood-Bane**


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi lovelies!  
> I would just like to say that I am so sorry that this took my forever (again) *hides face* and I won't make promises as to when the next update will be but I have made a clear plan for the rest of this fic and you can expect some more worried/protective Alec and Raphael and A LOT of Malec and Saphael-fluff! So if that's what you're looking for, then please be patient (a)
> 
> I'll be honest and say that I dropped the fandom for a while because there was just so much hate and negativity going on and it slowly smothered my muse. But I decided to cut ties with and unfollow that part of the fandom to be able to get back into writing again (I also made myself a new writing-playlist that is sort of making things flow more easily, yay!), I hope you enjoy this chapter - even though it's kind of short!
> 
>  
> 
> **Also: Warning for this chapter, there is some graphically described violence in it so please take care if that's something that might trigger you!**

When in mission-mode, as his sister liked to call it, Alec Lightwood was normally calm impersonated. But when someone went and kidnapped one of the few people he’d let himself care about, that professional calm went right out the window to leave way for an icy, murderous, rage. Which was why, when his eyes landed on the image of Camille forcing Magnus’ head back so she could feed him some sort of liquid, his arrow was flying before he’d even had time to consider the move.

He met the vampire’s stare head on as he released his other arrow, pointing it right towards where her heart was. When Camille did exactly what he’d suspected and moved out of the way, Alec let his lips form a mocking smile as if to say:

_“I’m here, bitch. What are you going to do about it?”_ , knowing it would piss her off and keep her attention on him as Raphael got into position. It was a battle to not just fire an arrow straight into that wicked head of hers, but Raphael was right. He did deserve this kill and Alec wasn’t about to take his revenge from him.

“This isn’t my first rodeo, Shadowhunter, do you really think you can take me alone?” Camille taunted him and Alec knocked another arrow as she moved backwards, obviously getting ready to unleash whatever fucked up thing she’d planned in the event someone came to the two men’s rescue. He let his eyes drift towards where Raphael should be by now and, exactly as planned, a small flash of light came and went.

“Not much of a talker, huh? Honestly Magnus, I have no idea what you see in this one? Seems to me he’s a bit of a bore…”, Camille continued with a look towards the warlock as she grabbed a nasty looking sword off of the table behind her- a bit overly dramatic for Alec’s tastes, but he couldn’t say he was all that surprised to be honest -, then she looked back up towards Alec with a smile and within the blink of an eye a knife was being thrown into the air towards him and Magnus’ horrified scream echoed in the large room. Alec ducked easily only to find the vampire next to Simon, the sword at his throat. That’s when Alec decided it was time to break his silence and with a raise of his brows he said:

“Who said I came alone?”

 

*******

Raphael moved through the corridors of what he quickly realised was an old abandoned factory as fast as his feet would carry him.

 

The second his eyes found Simon and Magnus’ forms from where he was hiding in the shadows, he felt his rage tenfold. Camille had the two of them strapped up and completely at her mercy and while Magnus was struggling to avoid having whatever liquid Camille had in her hand poured down his throat, Simon’s eyes were closed and his skin was pale even for a child of the night.

He smiled as Camille let out a shocked scream from the arrow suddenly pointing out of her hand, obviously Alec wasn’t against making the bitch suffer a bit before dying. Raphael really couldn’t blame him and actually found himself liking the Shadowhunter a little more for it.

 

He flicked his wrist and lit the lighter to signal to Alec that he was in position and then everything happened so fast that Raphael was grateful they’d planned for every possible scenario before going inside, eventually agreeing that Camille was more likely to kill Simon than Magnus, since to her he was nothing other than a disobedient fledgling.

 

 

One second, Camille was slowly backing towards the table to grab the sword and the next she was smiling wickedly in triumph up at Alec as she prepared to rid Simon of his head, knowing there was no way for the Shadowhunter to save the two prisoners on his own.

 

Raphael couldn’t help the growl that escaped his lips as Simon’s panic filled his own heart through their bond. When Alec finally broke his silence, the signal that Raphael was good to go, the vampire was so keyed up he didn’t even think as he started to move.

 

Smiling viciously at Camille’s shocked look, he stepped out of the shadows and had the arm she’d held the sword in broken in three pieces before she even had the time to process whatever thought was working its way through her head. Her cry of pain was silenced as soon as it started when the sword she’d intended for Simon instead was brought down into her stomach followed by a stake buried into her heart and Raphael met her gaze as she stared at him in agony before slowly dissipating into ash.

 

Raphael didn’t let himself think about what had just happened, only turned towards Simon.

“You okay?” he asked, eyes flitting over the other’s form to assess the damage. Noticing the needle and the tube attached to his arm, he reached out to disconnect it and set about getting the fledgling down to the floor. Simon stayed quiet, just watching Raphael with rapidly closing eyes and letting his arms be draped over the older vampire’s shoulders after finally having been freed from the chains.

 

*******

Magnus watched Camille’s ashes fall to the floor with an odd sense of relief. He’d always thought he’d be sad to see her die, but the tears that flowed down his cheeks had nothing to do with grief and everything to do with the feeling of having a stone lifted from his heart. He’d loved her once, with all of his heart and more. There was a time when the knowledge of her death would have broken him beyond repair. But that was a long time ago, when he’d lived under her influence and with the belief that the limited love - if you could even call it that - she gave him was all that he could ever had, all that he was worthy.

That was before Magnus had learned how valuable his life was in on its own, before he’d learned to love himself properly.

 

Now, her death truly was nothing but a relief and maybe he should feel bad about it, but as he looked towards where Raphael was slowly detaching Simon from his confines and resting the fledgling’s arms over his neck with such delicate care, he truly couldn’t find it in himself to feel any grief towards their abuser. The world was a better place without her.

 

Alec was at his side what felt like just a second after Camille was gone, strong arms lifting him up as the stele did quick work of loosening his chains and Magnus thought he might just cry a little bit more with the realization that the knife that had been thrown hadn’t hurt the shadowhunter in any way.

“You’re okay”, he got out and leaned into Alec’s chest as the man lifted him into a bridal-carry, too tired to really care about maybe being too tall and heavy for the other man to carry comfortably. He’d return the favor at a later date no doubt.

Alec’s huff of disbelief ruffled his hair and Magnus found himself smiling slightly as he closed his eyes to let Alec take care of him.

“You get kidnapped by your psycho ex, almost get tortured to death and you worry about _me_  being okay? Magnus, we need to talk about your priorities here…” he spoke and Magnus was too tired to do anything other than hum in acknowledgement at the words he barely heard through his mind’s steady stream of:

_He came for me, he’s safe and he came for me_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I changed my username of Tumblr and if you want to come over and chat/scream with me about these four and basically this show overall, you can find me at: **MatthewLightwood-Bane**


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